Jump Into the New World

PROLOGUE

Under Hero Factory, in the Villain Storage Facility, during the dead of night. Inside one of the many cells here, a Villain leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms in frustration. He could hardly remember how long he’d been here. A few weeks? A few months? A few years? Who knows, it all felt the same. He silently cursed the Heroes who had imprisoned him here. Especially Stormer. That rat. He was always a rat. When they were working together and when they were fighting against each other. He was always the same. It was his fault he was here. If Stormer hadn’t been there he surely would’ve won against those other useless Heroes. If he won, he would’ve had all the Quaza in the world, all to himself. Oh, how wonderful that would’ve been…

“Hello,” a smooth, calm voice echoed.

“You seem a bit wound up, buddy,” a raspy, energetic voice added.

The Villain stood up and looked around. Was he hearing things? Maybe the solitude had made him lose his mind.

“Nope. You’re not crazy,” the second voice replied.

Did that voice just reply to his thoughts? Could they—

“Yes. We can read your mind,” the first voice answered.

No way. They’re lying. They have to be.

“We are not lying,” the calm one said.

“Yep. And we’re here to give you a very special gift,” the energetic voice added.

“So talk to us, Witch Doctor.”

The Witch Doctor hesitated before shakily speaking, “…Who are you? What do you want?”

“I am Nicht,” the calm one answered.

“And I’m Alle!” the energetic one added.

“You will not tell anyone our names, our presence here will be a secret,” Nicht said as if it were a command.

“And if you keep that secret then we’ll give you that gift,” Alle continued.

“Give me what?” the Witch Doctor asked.

“Power. Power beyond your wildest dreams,” Alle replied.

“We can give you the power to take revenge on those who wronged you,” Nicht said.

“Don’t you want to get show that Stormer guy what you’re made of?”

“Should the people who put you here not be punished for what they’ve done?”

The Witch Doctor could hear smiles behind their voices. Each statement made him more and more uneasy. But they also made him angry- made him hungry for that power.

“And what do you get in return? Surely you must get something out of this,” the Witch Doctor quietly asked.

“Yes, we do,” Nicht stated.

“All three of us want the Heroes gone, but us two… we want a little more than that,” Alle said.

“There are a few more people we want eliminated. If you agree to destroy them for us, you can have our power,” Nicht finished.

The cell was quiet for a moment. The Witch Doctor was weighing his options.

“So, what’ll it be?” Alle asked.

“Accept our power or remain here for the rest of your mortal life?” Nicht finished.

“…I accept. What do I have to do?” the Witch Doctor said.

“You will know what to do once you get there,” Nicht answered.

“Get where? Where are you sending me?”

“Just a place you can raise hell from. What’s it called? Smata… Sphara… Spherta…” Alle said.

“Quiet. You are embarrassing both of us,” Nicht snapped.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You’ll figure it out once you’re there.”

Nicht cleared their throat, “Now then, are you ready, Witch Doctor?”

“I—” the Witch Doctor began.

“Don’t answer that. We weren’t asking!” Alle laughed.

Suddenly a light flashed before the Witch Doctor’s eyes, filling all of his optical sensors until it felt like they would burn out. Then, there was black…

CHAPTER 1

A group of Heroes exited Hero Factory, the morning sun shining on their armor. Today was the team’s day off. It was their first day off in quite a while, actually. But the universe had been so peaceful lately that Hero Factory thought they could afford to give their Heroes a day off at least every once in a while. Most of Alpha 1 was pretty excited to finally just chill for a day, although Stormer was still a bit uncomfortable with the idea.

Nex pulled out his phone and took a quick selfie.

“‘Heading to the coolest place in the city… other than Hero Factory.’ And…post!” Nex smiled.

Furno leaned over Nex’s shoulder and looked at himself in the photo, “Heh, nice.”

“Are you actually posting that?” Breez frustratedly asked.

“Of course. Don’t worry we all look great here,” Nex replied.

“I don’t think that was the point,” Stinger said.

“Come on, guys! No fighting!” Surge protested, “We’re supposed to be having fun today!”

“Surge is right. Let’s stay focused on what we came here to do,” Evo stated.

“Man, you’re treating a day off like it’s a mission or something,” Bulk joked.

“That’s Evo for you. Always…diligent,” Rocka said.

“He’s someone you should all learn from,” Stormer began, “I, for one, think this is completely pointless.”

“What?! Gaming is the best use of time!” Surge argued.

“More like ‘waste of time’,” Bulk said doing a surprisingly accurate impression of Stormer.

“I kind of agree with Stormer,” Breez admitted, “I mean, did you have to drag all of us with you to your little arcade? Some of us would like to do other things.”

“‘Little’?! Oh, you’ll see this place is anything but ‘little’!” Nex replied.

“Yeah, it’s the biggest arcade in the city. It’s got everything. I can’t believe you’ve never been there,” Furno added.

“Some of us have important things to be doing with our free time,” Evo said.

“Yeah, like what?” Surge asked.

“Like be with Topaz.”

Rocka laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” Evo asked.

“Probably because it’s kinda cute how much ya care about that wolf lizard of yours,” Stringer said.

“Is it..?”

“Don’t take those two seriously, Evo,” Stormer said.

“Right…”

The group soon moved on to another conversation topic as they continued walking through the city.

A small way away from them, a woman and a small floating robot stood on the side of the road. The woman had a displeased look on her face.

“Another slow news day,” she began, “Y’know, peace sounds great until it jeopardizes your entire livelihood.”

The robot next to her responded with a series of sad beeps and boops.

“Yeah, I know. It’s nice not to get shot at when we’re on the scene, but we also don’t have scenes anymore.”

The robot made a few high pitched boops.

“We’ve been trying to interview the Heroes, but it’s so hard to find them nowadays. Well, it’s hard to find the important ones. Rookies are a dime a dozen, but they’re also not very interesting. I wish we could interview Alpha Team… Now they’d have some stories for sure!”

The lady became enamored with the idea of that interview. So enamored that she failed to notice the team of Heroes walk right past her. Her robot subordinate loudly beeped at her.

“What is it?! Can’t you see I’m having a moment here?!” she yelled.

The robot pointed to the Heroes, still frantically beeping. When the woman realized it was them she gasped.

“You idiot!” she smacked the robot on its head, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

She ran up to the group, her robotic slave following behind her. Hearing the sound of her footsteps, the Heroes turned around and as they saw her their blood (if they had blood) ran cold.

The lady mumbled something to her robot about turning in the camera. After her abuse was over she cleared her throat.

“Hello, everyone! Daniella Capricorn here! We are live inside Makuhero City with everyone’s favorite Hero team, Alpha 1!” Daniella announced.

“Wait, we never agreed to—” Surge began.

Furno nudged him as if to say “shut up.”

Stormer and the others waved, most of them trying their best to hide the awkwardness of this interaction.

Daniella stepped closer to them, “So, what are you doing this fine morning? Finding Villains and fighting crime?”

“Ahaha, yep. We sure are,” Breez uncomfortably laughed.

“And we’d sure love to get back to doing that please,” Surge added.

“Oh, really? Who are you after? What’s the situation?” Daniella enthusiastically asked.

The Heroes were struggling to come up with a satisfactory answer. They nervously looked to each other, hoping one of them would have something to say that could get them out of this.

“I’m sorry but that’s confidential. And urgent. So we need to get going now,” Stormer said firmly.

He began quickly walking away, and the other Heroes followed. But Daniella was still there, right behind them.

“Is there anything you can say about the situation?” she asked.

Everyone ignored her. She kept pestering them with comments and questions, but the Heroes still said nothing.

“So, are you—” Daniella began.

Furno quickly turned around and started to speak, but Stormer stopped him.

“Stormer, what are you…” Furno muttered, boiling with anger.

“Be quiet,” Stormer quietly responded.

Stormer deliberated for a moment on how to handle the situation, when his thoughts were interrupted by nearby sounds that had just started. First there were screams, then an explosion. The Heroes all whipped around to see smoke coming from a street nearby.

“What was that?!” Rocka asked.

“Nothing good,” Evo responded.

Daniella smiled, brimming with excitement, “This is going to be such a good story! Come on, get a good shot!”

She reached to for her camera-bot, but someone reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. It was Stormer.

“Daniella, you need to evacuate. We don’t know what will happen out there, and we don’t want anyone getting hurt,” Stormer said.

Daniella looked up at him, her heart fluttering at his words.

“Y-You care about me..?” Daniella asked hopefully.

“Yes, we care about all civilians. Now go,” Stormer said, successfully hiding how much he hated having to indulge her.

She nodded and started running away from the scene. With her gone the Heroes started rushing to where the explosion came from.

“Nice job getting her off our backs,” Bulk said.

“I just did what I had to,” Stormer responded.

In no time at all, the Heroes reached the street the explosions came from. More people were running by them, trying to escape the giant monster ravaging the city. It was a rugged four-legged creature with a long tail and spikes running down its back. It had what looked like a massive glowing horn on its head and its eyes cut through them like daggers. The Heroes stared at it for a moment in shock.

“Crikey, that thing’s massive…” Nex said in awe.

“Yes, and we have to take it down. Now,” Stormer turned to face his team, “Everyone, remember what we practiced.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got this,” Furno said before he pulled out his weapons and rushed into battle.

“Furno, wait!” Breez yelled.

Breez started running after him and Surge followed, “What are we even doing?!”

“That formation we practiced yesterday, remember?” Furno asked.

“Oh, yeah!”

“I wish you told us that before running off…” Breez sighed.

The three of them immediately got into position around the monster. Breez began quickly running circles around the monster, rhythmically stabbing it with her spear as Furno and Surge shot at it with their weapons.

“Hey, let us in on this!” Rocka shouted as he stepped towards the fight.

Stormer held out his arm and blocked him, “This is too big a fight for you. You and the rookies need to help evacuate the citizens.”

“What?! That’s so boring!”

“I know, but maybe we shouldn’t argue with Stormer,” Nex said.

“We should stop talking and help,” Evo stated.

Rocka and Nex immediately shut up, nodded to Evo, and ran off to help the people. Stormer turned to Bulk and Stringer. The three exchanged a knowing glance and that was all they needed before they rushed into the fight.

Furno, Surge and Breez were still doing what they were before, though it seemed to have little effect on the monster. It barely flinched as it was stabbed and shot. Without any warning the monster whipped its tail around, nearly knocking the Heroes to the ground. They jumped away from it and took a few steps back to get their distance.

“This isn’t working!” Breez said, “We need to try something else!”

“Yeah, like what?” Furno snapped, very annoyed that his idea had proven fruitless.

Surge looked at the monster, it seemed restless, “I don’t know, but we have to do something quick!”

“Okay, maybe we can—” Furno began.

“Guys, look out!” Breez yelled.

Furno looked up to see the monster barreling towards them with intent to kill. Just as fast as the monster rushed towards them were they swept away from the scene. In the blink of an eye they were in a nearby alley, and the monster couldn’t find them.

“Wh-What just happened?” Surge stammered.

“We just saved you guys,” Bulk smiled.

It was the veterans of Alpha Team. Bulk and Stringer were standing next to the other three while Stormer looked out of the alley.

“Shouldn’t ya thank us?” Stringer said jokingly.

“Yes. Thank you,” Breez said.

“That was a joke, Breez,” Furno sighed.

“What?”

Stormer turned to them, “Quit the small talk. We have to come up with a game plan now.”

“Right, right. So, got any ideas?” Stringer asked.

“We should—” Furno started.

“No way. We tried it your way last time and look where that got us,” Breez said.

“Hey!”

“No arguing,” Stormer snapped, “Surge, what about you?”

“Me?” Surge asked, shocked.

“Yes, you.”

Surge remained silent. He didn’t think anyone would ask him of all people for plans, especially not in a battle this big. He hesitated for a while before finally speaking his mind.

“Yeah, I think I do,” he said.

“Do tell,” Bulk responded.

“Um… Well…”

“Just say it,” Stormer snapped.

He sounded rude, but Surge understood what he really meant. With Stormer’s “encouragement” he started to tell them all the details…

Outside the alley the monster was still rampaging. It rammed against buildings, growling the whole time. Civilians kept running as the destruction continued. The situation seemed bleak, until…

“Hey, ugly!” Surge shouted.

The monster turned to face him. As its glowing eyes stared into Surge’s soul he started shaking ever so slightly.

“Y-Yeah, I’m talking to you! You’ve caused enough destruction, and we’re gonna put an end to it right now!”

The monster did not seem impressed with his little speech. Surge kept staring at it, and it stared back.

“I can do this…” Surge whispered to himself.

He drew his weapon, aimed, and fired. Though the monster barely felt a sting, it was mad. Very very mad. It started rampaging again, chasing Surge through the streets. Surge dodged and weaved away from both the monster’s attacks and any obstacles in his way, jumping over cars and sprinting around corners. After what seemed like an eternity of running, he ran into a dead end. He turned around to see the monster launching its jaws forward, ready to finally tear him apart.

Surge closed his eyes and screamed, “Now!”

In an instant the other five Heroes had jumped onto the monster, taking it from all sides. The monster reeled, attempting to get the sudden attackers off of it, but to no avail.

“Everyone, attack its horn!” Stormer ordered.

The Heroes rushed to the monster’s head and began hacking away at its horn. The monster howled in pain and threw its head back, launching several of the Heroes off its body. Four of the Heroes crashed into the walls around them, leaving only Furno. He raised his blades and drew as much of his power as he could into them. Then he slashed through the monster’s horn. The monster screamed and then suddenly went quiet. The Heroes stared at it, wondering if it was finally over. The monster whimpered before turning tail and running away, Furno slipping off its head as it ran.

“Well, that was easier than I thought,” Stringer remarked as he pulled Furno up.

“I can’t believe that actually worked…” Furno muttered.

“I know right?! My plan really worked!” Surge said, smiling.

“Yeah, good job, little man,” Bulk said.

Stormer walked over to the “horn” and picked it up, “Just a hunch, but I think this thing might have been controlling that creature…”

“You’re right,” Breez began, “The creature was suffering because of that thing.”

“How do you know? Seemed like a bloodthirsty monster to me,” Furno said.

“I can talk to animals, remember?”

“Oh, yeah!” Furno laughed nervously.

“Enough talk,” Stormer interjected, “We should take this thing back to HQ for testing.”

Everyone universally agreed on that and began walking away from the scene.

“Hey, did we forget anything?” Surge asked.

“Like what?” Furno questioned his question.

“Hey guys!” Rocka yelled as he and the other rookies ran towards Alpha Team.

“We’re back,” Evo said.

“Did we miss anything?” Nex asked.

Alpha Team all looked at each other as saying a collective “Oh yeah, them.”

“You didn’t miss much,” Breez responded.

“Just the best monster beating ever! And it was all my idea!” Surge excitedly answered.

“Aw, man. We missed all the action again?” Rocka disappointedly asked.

“It wasn’t much,” Stormer said.

“Don’t worry, guys. We’ll invite ya’ll to the next monster beating mission,” Stringer added.

The rookies were all very excited by that promise, and all started walking back to HQ.

Back at HQ, the Heroes stood together in the meeting room. The vibe was distinctly tense.

“So what’s the verdict?” Stormer asked.

“Well, it’s definitely some sort of mind control device,” Zib began, “But it’s not technologically powered. It seems to be using a form of magic. And this isn’t the only crystal out there— take a look.”

Zib pulled up a star map on the monitor behind him. It showed the entire galaxy with a few glowing red dots on it.

“We located signals of this magic in three other locations, but…”

“But what?” Breez asked.

“As you can see, these locations aren’t marked on the star map. We have no idea what’s out there, or why the signal is there, or who’s using this magic, or their motives, or—”

“We get it, Zib. There’s a mysterious Villain out there we need to find, so we need to split up and search those places, right?” Rocka said.

“Yes. But like I said, we don’t know what’s out there, so you need to be very careful.”

“Yeah, sure. We’ll be careful,” Furno sneered.

“Why do you say that like we won’t...?” Evo asked nervously.

“We’ve prepared Herocraft with the GPS set to each location. When you’ve decided on exactly how you’re splitting up you can take them straight to your destination. Please get going as soon as you can,” Zib politely ordered.

The Heroes communally expressed their agreement to Zib and began discussing mission details amongst themselves. They didn’t know what was out there, what they were fighting, or who they’d meet. And they also didn’t know it would change all of their lives for the foreseeable future…

CHAPTER 2

Filled with tall buildings, bright signs, and bustling crowds, the Crossroads were just as busy as ever today. Amongst the seas of people was a group of six color-coded individuals. Five of them were chatting without a care in the world, but one of them wasn’t engaged with the rest. He lowered his head and sighed.

“What’s up with you? You’ve been gloomy this whole time,” Jay asked.

“Yeah, you’re kinda killing the vibe,” Kai added.

“Sorry, it’s just, I feel bad about leaving the others behind,” Lloyd said.

“Don’t worry about them. They’re the ones who tore up the monastery anyway.”

“I know but…”

“But Kai, I remember you nearly setting half the training course on fire,” Zane said.

“Th-That was an accident!” Kai retorted.

“An accident that nearly burnt down the monastery again but okay,” Cole said.

“Honestly, you should be back there cleaning up too, Kai,” Nya said.

“Okay, I get it! Can you stop making fun of me now?!” Kai snapped.

Lloyd attempted to hold back a laugh but couldn’t.

“Great. Nice to know we’re all on the ‘make fun of Kai for an honest mistake’ train,” Kai remarked.

“I-I didn’t mean it like that!” Lloyd said.

“Sure you didn’t.”

With a final remark like that you’d expect a bit of awkwardness to hang in the air before they changed subjects, but no. The group swiftly laughed it off and moved on. Well, everyone except Kai, he was still a little insulted. Conversations like this were a usual part of their carefree days off. But just like how all their days off are, they would soon been swept up in another villain’s plot. And somehow they weren’t expecting it…

Three Heroes stepped out of their Herocraft and into the Crossroads. Their first look at this new planet definitely left an impression.

“Wow... It’s like a more colorful version of Makuhero City,” Nex gasped.

“And there’s just as many billboards here too,” Furno added.

“That’s capitalism for ya,” Stringer remarked.

Nex pulled out his navigator and began pressing some buttons before Furno interrupted him.

“Nex, leave this to me,” he said as he pulled up a map on his visor. A small red dot showed him where their target was.

“No fair. Stringer and I don’t have cool upgrades like that,” Nex complained.

“Maybe you two should’ve performed better during the breakout then.”

“That’s a little rude, even for you,” Stringer said.

“Anyway,” Furno began with a hint of animosity, “It looks like our target is only a few blocks away.”

“And there’s no commotion? No screaming civilians?” Nex asked.

“Guess not. Maybe the people of this planet are just used to this kinda thing,” Stringer shrugged.

The Heroes started speed walking to their destination. They assumed attempting to remain calm would also keep the citizens calm, but it seemed like their mere presence there was mildly distressing.

“They keep looking at us,” Furno whispered.

Indeed they were. People there certainly weren’t hiding their fearful stares.

“Well, they’re flesh and blood type people I think. Maybe technology hasn’t advanced very far on this planet,” Nex replied.

“So they’re used to giant monsters but not slightly-taller-than-them robots. Interestin’,” Stringer remarked.

They continued walking, trying not to look at the pedestrians’ judgmental stares. Soon enough, they had arrived at the square where their target was. They looked around but saw nothing. Well, nothing monster-looking that is. They did see a group of people staring up at something in the sky.

“What is that…” one of them muttered.

“I really don’t wanna know…” another replied.

The Heroes approached them. They didn’t know who these people were, but we know that they’re the ninja.

Stringer looked up, “I think that’s our target.”

A large, vaguely bird shaped shadow loomed above, a slight glow emanating off its head. It was circling in the sky, as if it was searching for something. The group of people finally noticed the Heroes were there and began staring at them instead of the bird thing.

“What? What target?” Cole asked.

“And who even are you? WHAT even are you?” Kai continued.

“Rude,” Furno snapped.

“We’re Heroes. And our target is that giant monster in the sky,” Stringer answered.

“We’re here to protect you, and everyone else in the universe,” Nex added.

“‘Protect us?’” Nya asked.

“Yeah, sorry guys but we do the protecting around here,” Kai said.

“Oh, really?” Furno assertively stepped towards the ninja, “And who do you think you are, huh?”

“Uh, Furno, that’s…” Nex stammered.

Furno glared at the other two Heroes. The gesture told them that he did not care what they had to say.

Kai stepped towards Furno more assertively, “We’re ninja. We’ve saved Ninjago more times than you can count.”

“Okay. But we’re Heroes. We save galaxies on a biweekly basis,” Furno countered.

“If you’ve done so much then how come we’ve never heard of you?”

Furno had no good counter, but still tried to sound confident, “…I don’t know. We’ve actually never visited this planet before. But we’re here now and we’re here to save you.”

“Save us from what?”

The bird-like monster cried, a cry that felt like a dagger piercing through their ears (or auditory receptors if you’re a Hero).

“From that,” Stringer nonchalantly stated.

As if his words were its cue, the bird monster dove down from the sky directly at our heroes. The group leaped out of the way just before the creature’s beak crashed into the ground. The impact shattered the pavement it landed on, sending a shockwave of residual force at everything nearby.

The groups swiftly recovered from the shock had lifted their gazes just in time to see the creature tear its beak out of the ground. It cried and started pecking at all of them indiscriminately. The force and carelessness of its actions communicated that it didn’t care who it hit, as long as it hit someone.

“Okay, so what’s the game plan here?” Jay frantically asked as he (and everyone else) ran for their lives.

“That’s a great question. I don’t really have an answer,” Lloyd replied.

“Great. Then leave it to us,” Furno said.

Furno whipped around and shot at the creature. The blasts of fire made it reel, but soon enough it cried out again and resumed its attack.

“Hey, you guys gonna contribute here?” Furno snapped.

“Yeah, we’d love to,” Nex answered.

“And we’d be more inclined to if you weren’t bein’ so rude about it,” Stringer added.

Furno muttered something nobody but him could hear. Some very kind things about his teammates, probably.

Suddenly, the creature’s tail was set ablaze. It screamed and flailed around trying to put out the fire.

“Nice one, Furno!” Nex cheered.

“I didn’t do that…” Furno admitted.

“Keep at it, guys!” Lloyd yelled.

The Heroes stared in awe as the ninja leaped into action. Each of them threw their powers at the creature, each hit distressing it more than the last. When the creature was sufficiently stunned, they rushed towards it and started bombarding it with physical attacks. Eventually it seemed like the creature had resigned itself to its fate. It curled up in a ball, covering itself with its wings. The ninja kept attacking.

“Hasn’t this guy had enough yet?” Nya asked.

“I don’t know. Something about this feels off,” Lloyd said.

As they kept attacking Lloyd noticed something. The creature’s eyes shone through its feathers, and they looked…confident. The way it looked at him felt like it was laughing without any words. He stopped.

“Guys, wait. I think we—” Lloyd began.

In the blink of an eye, the creature shot open its wings, the force of them sending the ninja flying into the building behind them. For a short moment after, everything was blurred and muffled as their bodies recovered from the shock. When the world was clear again, they noticed the Heroes were standing over them.

“Are you guys okay?” Nex asked.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Lloyd replied.

“We get tossed around like this all the time,” Cole said.

“That’s… a bit concernin’,” Stringer began, “Anyway, those powers of yours really are somethin’. If we work together that monster’ll be wrangled in no time. What do you say?”

Furno was visibly displeased by this potential partnership but chose not to voice those feelings.

“That seems like it would be the most productive course of action,” Zane stated.

“Yeah. From what you said earlier, it sounds like you guys know more than us about this monster thing too,” Nya added.

Kai was visibly displeased by this potential partnership but chose not to voice those feelings.

Stringer reached out his hand and Lloyd accepted it, their handshake forming an alliance between the teams.

“So, how do we take this thing out?” Lloyd asked.

“We have to break that glowin’ horn on its head. Not sure where it came from or why it’s there, but we do know breakin’ it’ll do the trick,” Stringer replied.

“Then we’d need to keep it stationary long enough to get on its head…”

“And I think I know how we could do that,” Nex said, intently looking at the ninja.

Everyone instantly understood what he meant and knew what the plan was. They didn’t need words, they just knew. The newly formed team looked at their enemy. It was circling in the sky again, trying to find them. The team stepped out of the shadows cast by the building and into the creature’s line of sight. The creature cried out, an obvious signal that it was ready to strike. But before it could the team began firing their powers at it. The creature was a bit put off by this, but ultimately did not seem particularly phased. The team continued firing at it, and it glared down at them with laughing eyes. Eyes that called them fools without saying any words.

“Anytime now,” Kai urged.

“I hear ya,” Stringer responded.

Stringer quickly pressed some buttons on his gun, then aimed, and fired. The sound waves blasted through the sky and straight at the creature, hitting it directly in the head. It reeled, creating an opening.

“Now we’ve got you!” Jay yelled.

He quickly shocked the creature, elongating its stunned state.

“Take this, ratbag!” Nex shouted.

He leaped into the air and slammed his fists into its back sending it crashing down to the ground.

“I wasn’t informed we were all meant to have one-liners for this,” Zane said.

He shot ice at the creature’s wings and legs, freezing it to the ground.

“This is the end!” Furno yelled.

He rushed towards the creature and swiftly cut through the crystal on its head. The crystal fell to the ground and all was quiet.

“And that’s how it’s done!” Kai boasted.

“You didn’t do anything,” Nya stated.

Kai was about to snap back but his potential sentence was interrupted by the creature whimpering.

“You could do something by helping me thaw that ice,” Furno said.

Kai muttered something incoherent, probably a complaint of some kind. The two used their fire to thaw the ice and the creature flew away.

“Are you sure it’s okay to let it just…leave?” Cole asked.

“Eh, it’s probably fine. And if it causes any trouble Hero Factory’ll come back and take care of it for ya,” Stringer said.

“What’s Hero Factory?” Lloyd asked.

“It’s where Heroes are made. And where we work. And where we train. And where we live. It’s where we do everything basically,” Nex answered.

“Wait, you guys are robots?! Not just people in robotic suits?!” Jay yelled.

Everyone looked at Jay with various versions of expressions saying “are you serious right now?”

“Okay, I get it…” Jay said.

“So let me get this straight. You guys are Heroes from Hero Factory and you came here to save us from that bird creature?” Lloyd asked.

“Yep. That’s pretty much it,” Stringer said.

“And where exactly is Hero Factory?” Nya asked.

“Makuhero City,” Furno replied.

“And that’s not on your planet, FYI,” Nex added.

“So you’re part of a universe protecting organization on another planet?” Cole asked.

The Heroes all responded at the same time with various ways of saying yes.

“And of all the threats happening in the universe you chose to come help us?” Lloyd asked.

“Well, actually this situation is bigger than just this one isolated incident and we should really be getting back to Hero Factory…” Furno said in an obvious attempt to end the conversation.

“Wait there’s more of these monsters attacking people?” Jay asked.

“Sure are,” Stringer replied.

For once, there was silence. The ninja exchanged glances that seemed to convey an entire conversation. It went something like, “That’s horrible.” “We couldn’t possibly..?” “No you’re right.” “But still…” Stringer took notice of this exchange.

“Ya’ll can come back to HQ with us if ya wanna help,” he said.

“Really?” Lloyd asked.

“Sure ya can. Those powers ya’ll have would be mighty helpful.”

“Are you sure Stormer would—” Nex began.

Stringer cut him off by shushing him.

“Honestly, I agree with Nex here,” Furno said.

“No, ya don’t care what Stormer would think, ya only care because it would be real awkward if ya ended up on the same team as the people ya just got into an argument with 15 minutes ago.” Stringer countered.

That reply instantly shut Furno up. Stringer turned his attention back to the ninja.

“So, what do ya say?” he asked.

The ninja had another conversation with their eyes only. This one went something like, “Their team seems very dysfunctional.” “Can we really trust them?” “But people are in danger…”

“We want to help. We’ll come with you,” Lloyd answered.

“Great! Happy to be workin’ with ya,” Stringer smiled.

“Same here.”

“Awesome. Can we get going now?” Furno snapped.

“Yes, Furno,” Stringer said, somewhat disappointed Furno was still mad.

The group stood in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Jay broke the silence, “So, are you gonna take us back to your ship or whatever you came here in?”

“Yeah, about that…” Stringer looked at Furno and Nex, “Do either of ya remember where we landed?”

“Are you kidding me?!” Furno yelled.

“You’ve gotta be joking,” Nex nervously laughed.

A small argument between them started, most of the dialogue consisting of Stringer saying he’s sorry while Furno and Nex berate him. The ninja watched the scene play out in awe at how these planet-hopping professionals could be so…like this. Eventually the ninja ended up guiding them through the Crossroads so they could find their Herocraft. And though the situation was a bit awkward, the whole ordeal brought them closer together. It almost felt like they were destined to meet…

CHAPTER 3

The Herocraft soared through the sky, stars and planets flying by in the blink of an eye. On this Herocraft was Stormer, Breez, and Evo. They were headed to their destination, an unknown planet far from Hero Factory. And their journey to it was almost over.

“We’re nearing the unknown planet. I’ll look for somewhere to land.” Breez said.

“Right. Be ready for anything. Remember, this is uncharted territory. We don’t know what’s out there,” Stormer stated.

Evo silently began weapon checks. Stormer took notice of this.

“Very diligent of you, Evo,” he said.

“Yes. Thank you, sir,” Evo responded.

He couldn’t quite tell if what Stormer said was a compliment or an insult, and he didn’t want to be seen as disrespectful for asking.

Breez continued piloting the Herocraft, slowly getting closer to the location of their target. She scanned the beach below and saw the creature they were looking for…and multiple other beings fighting it.

“Stormer, sir! There’s civilians down there attempting to fight our target. Should we land and assist them?” she asked.

Stormer glanced outside to gauge the situation.

“No,” he said, “We should watch for now.”

“But sir they could be in danger!” Breez stressed.

“Perhaps. And if we find that they are, then we will help them. But for now, we wait.”

“How will we know when to help?” Evo asked.

“I’ll tell you,” Stormer replied.

As the fight raged below, Breez and Evo watched with anxiety. Stormer however, remained completely calm. He watched much more analytically, attempting to learn as much as he could about both the monster and the brave souls fighting it. And as for those brave souls…

Down below, on the beach, the scene of the fight was chaotic at best. A group of six weaved through repeated attacks by two giant scorpion-like monsters. They (like all the others) had glowing crystals on their heads and a singled-minded bloodlust.

“These guys just won’t give up!” Pohatu panted as he bashed one of their stingers away from him.

“Keep at it! There has to be a way to stop them,” Tahu ordered.

One of the scorpions swung its tail at Lewa, who quickly leaped out of the way.

“I don’t understand why the Rahi are being evil-bad again,” he said.

“It’s those crystals. There must be some power in them that’s causing this,” Gali responded.

“Yes, but—”

Lewa noticed the other scorpion rushing at him and at the pace it was traveling to him at it would be tearing him to shreds in about one second. Luckily for him, the team’s reflexes were faster than that, and in the blink of an eye Onua had swept him away from the Rahi.

“Many thanks, Onua,” Lewa said.

Onua nodded, his way of silently saying “you’re welcome.” The two of them rushed back into the fight.

Tahu repeatedly jumped away from one of the Rahi, which was relentlessly attempting to sting him. He tried to fight back but couldn’t find an opportunity to strike. Suddenly, the Rahi’s legs were frozen to the ground.

“These Rahi seem as fiery as you, Tahu,” Kopaka remarked.

Tahu begrudgingly accepted the insult without snapping back. He struck the crystal on its head, dealing damage but not enough to break it. The Rahi broke out of the ice and began retaliating.

Gali and Pohatu parried strike after strike from the other Rahi. They continued this dance without an end in sight, neither party planning to yield anytime soon.

“I just don’t understand who could’ve done this to the Rahi… Who could’ve had the motive to…” Gali pondered.

“I hope you don’t expect me to have an answer to that,” Pohatu said, half joking.

“No, sorry. I was just thinking aloud.”

Their conversation had distracted them enough for the Rahi to almost land a strike on Gali. She had dodged it just in time.

“We should keep our heads in the game for now,” Pohatu said.

“Right. Follow my lead,” Gali ordered.

Tahu and Kopaka awkwardly back stepped away from their Rahi while swatting away its stinger with their weapons.

“Do you have any other bright ideas?” Tahu asked.

“I thought you’d have one, team leader,” Kopaka replied.

“So you don’t.”

The two of them wordlessly decided to just keep protecting themselves until they found an opening. Though with its attacks being so relentless, neither of them knew how long they’d have to wait until that happened.

Gali summoned water into her hands and shot it at the sand below their Rahi, turning the sand wet and sticky. The Rahi struggled to move in it. Pohatu used this opportunity to strike at the crystal on its head. Just like Tahu before him, he damaged it but didn’t break it. The Rahi was enraged by the attack, and it furiously pulled its legs out of the wet sand and began rushing towards the Toa.

“Okay, what do we do now?” Pohatu asked.

“I’m not sure, but we have to keep fighting,” Gali responded.

Tahu and Kopaka continued fighting their Rahi, looking for an opening but being unable to see past the endless stings they had to protect themselves from. It seemed like they had no choice but to stay on the defensive and had no way of knowing how long they could keep it up.

“Seems like you two could use some help,” Onua called.

He slammed into the Rahi, smashing it into the ground. Tahu and Kopaka used this opening to attack the crystal at the same time. It shattered, its influence leaving the Rahi.

Pohatu and Gali leaped out of the way of another attack from their Rahi. The Rahi rushed towards them again before it was swept off its feet by a rising wall of stone that Pohatu had just summoned. It knocked the Rahi over onto its back and it squirmed as it tried to get back on its feet. The two Toa were ready to attack. Pohatu lowered the stone wall they saw the Rahi, crystal broken and Lewa standing beside it.

“Lewa?” Gali looked at him, perplexed.

The Toa of Air said nothing. He laid a hand on the unpossessed Rahi and whispered comforting words to it. He couldn’t imagine how much pain it had gone through from that crystal, it morphing its body and mind like it had. The Rahi was not very receptive of his gesture though, and it ran off into the woods.

“I see you three are done. We are too,” Tahu said.

He, Kopaka, and Onua walked over to the other Toa.

“Yes. I am glad we won without significant injury, but…” Gali’s sentence trailed off.

“You are wondering who did this and if they will strike again, right?” Onua said.

Gali nodded. The Toa were silent. They each had their own thoughts about the situation, but none of them knew who should speak first. Their collective thinking was interrupted by engines blaring behind them. They whipped around to see a ship landing on the sand. It was the Herocraft. The Heroes stepped out of it and approached the Toa.

“Who are you?” Kopaka snapped.

“My name is Stormer, and we are Heroes from Hero Factory. We learned of the situation on your planet with those monsters and came to help, but it seems that you didn’t need it. You’re quite skilled fighters,” Stormer said.

“What is this ‘Hero Factory’?” Tahu asked skeptically.

“And how did you know about the Rahi?” Gali added.

The Heroes explained all the backstory about Hero Factory and the situation as a whole. The Rahi appearing on other planets, the mind control crystals, their mission to find the culprit- everything. The Toa were a bit taken aback to hear that there’s a giant galaxy-defending organization on a planet they’ve never heard of.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” Stormer began, “We need your help.”

The Toa were even more taken aback to hear that.

“We both have a similar goal,” Stormer continued, “you want to protect your world, and we want to protect the universe as a whole. Your knowledge on these Rahi would be paramount and your combat skills are also valuable. I know you are more than capable of protecting your planet on your own, and that you incur more risks than benefits by helping us, but we would be honored to have your assistance.”

The Toa looked to each other, gauging everyone’s reactions. It seems like they all were thinking the same things. Things like, “This was very unexpected” and “Can we really trust these random people who just showed up out of nowhere?” Despite their doubts, they were leaning towards saying yes. If these people could help them figure out who’s doing this to the Rahi and put a stop to it, then that would be great. And it’s not like their planet would be completely unprotected. The other Toa were still there. Though they would feel a little guilty to leave without saying anything, the Heroes might be just the partners they need to find out who’s doing this to the Rahi.

“We’ll do it,” Tahu said.

“Thank you,” Stormer responded.

The two team leaders shook hands.

“I’m honored to be working with you,” Evo said with a slight bow.

“No need to be so formal, little guy,” Pohatu laughed.

Evo was visibly embarrassed to be called ‘little guy’. He was in fact not little and was just as tall as the Toa. But Pohatu’s remark had been the thing to get the group to speak to each other on friendlier terms. They started a lively conversation as they walked into the Herocraft, a conversation that would continue until they got back to HQ.

Somewhere deep in the forests of Spherus Magna our Villain continued his operation. His scheme. He forcefully pinned a monkey-like Rahi to the ground and it held it there. It fought against his grip but was powerless against the much larger Villain.

“Stay there, you little…” he muttered.

He lifted his staff and shot dark magic at the Rahi. The magic immediately began changing the Rahi, twisting and corrupting its form. It became much larger and stronger, but all that newfound power was painful. Unfathomably painful. The transformation was finished when the crystal on its head had fully grown in. The Rahi looked at the Villain who had done this to it, but it didn’t see him as a threat, it now saw him as its master. It awaited its orders. The Witch Doctor smiled. He thrust his staff forward, opening a portal near the Rahi. He used his magic to physically show an image to it, beaming it directly into its brain.

“Go. Destroy those people I’ve shown you,” the Witch Doctor commanded.

The Rahi eagerly ran through the portal, and it closed behind the creature. The Witch Doctor had only a few seconds of silence before a spark of magic appeared behind him and sound started blaring out of it. It was playing a magical cellphone ringtone of some sort. The Witch Doctor turned around, sighed, and tapped the spark. Its color changed, indicating it was on.

“Yes, hello?” the Witch Doctor unenthusiastically greeted them.

“Heyyyyyy, buddy! How’s it goin’?” an enthusiastic and raspy voice greeted him.

“Ugh, I knew it. It’s Alle again…” the Witch Doctor thought. He internally cursed the man he was working for before regaining his composure, “It’s going well. Though I wish I could see the carnage for myself…”

“Yeah, I know. But imagine how I feel right now! I’m just sitting here watching you do all the real evil! I’m like Supreme Evil Mastermind #1! I should be out there taking heads!”

“Aren’t I supposed to be the Villain here? You’re only helping me achieve my power, remember?”

“Uh. That’s. I mean,” Alle cleared his throat and changed his tone, “Of course you’re the Villain. You’re the most powerful one in the world! Once you complete your half of the deal that is. Then you’ll have everything you could possibly want.”

“Right. I’ll have my magic and my Quaza. And with that… power. Ultimate power.”

“Quaza? I thought you just wanted magic what the hell is Quaza?”

“Quaza IS power! How can you not know that?! I thought a ‘Supreme Evil Mastermind’ would be smart enough to know the most basic knowledge in Hero Factory!”

“Right, right. I know. I was just joking around! I’ll get your Quaza, so relax, buddy.”

“Good. You’d better.”

“Alright, well—” Alle got cut off by the Witch Doctor shooting a blast of magic at the communication spark, destroying it.

Finally the Witch Doctor had silence. That idiot was gone and he could get back to his scheme. He scanned the forest around him and saw many suitable Rahi. He smiled, knowing all of them would soon become his slaves…

CHAPTER 4

The Herocraft blazed through the sky, uncontrollably shooting past everything around it. On this Herocraft was Rocka, Surge, and Bulk. They were headed to their destination, another unknown planet far from Hero Factory. And though their journey to it was physically almost done, emotionally it was far from over. The ship jerked around as Rocka tried and failed to reign it in. It seemed like Rocka was actively fighting with the Herocraft as he tried to gain some amount of control of it.

The sharp motions of the ship made Surge’s head spin, “Ugh, this is it… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die on a Herocraft piloted by Rocka… Even in death I’ll never live that down…”

“I thought you said you had this thing under control!” Bulk yelled.

“I do!” Rocka countered as he flipped some switches, “This thing just has a mind of its own!”

“You say that about every piece of tech that doesn’t like you… which is all of them,” Bulk sighed.

“Yeah, laugh it up, Bulk. You’ll be eating those words when I get us there in one piece.”

“I wasn’t laughing…”

Rocka inputted more commands into the Herocraft. Whatever he did made it shake uncontrollably while the systems inside it made ear-piercing sounds as if the Herocraft was crying out for help.

“What are you doing?!” Surge gasped.

“Shut up, I’m trying to focus here!” Rocka snapped.

Bulk stayed silent while the other two Heroes argued. He had never in all his years seen someone fly a Herocraft this poorly. At this rate, the Herocraft would either explode midair or crash into that poor unsuspecting planet. Either way, they were in for one hell of a ride…

Clay swiftly cut through a wooden target, cleaving it into two perfectly parted halves. He took a deep breath and looked at his reflection in his sword. He looked fine. His armor was clean, his hair was nice, and the bags under his eyes, well… he hoped nobody would notice those.

He looked at the people in the room around him. They were his teammates, and yet almost none of them seemed to care how they would all look in the coming ceremony. Lance was lounging on his phone, Aaron was flying around causing trouble, Axl was just standing there doing nothing, Jestro was being a nervous wreck in the corner, and Macy was trying to comfort him. Clay could only commend Macy for making an effort. And Jestro was at least trying to fight his stage fright. But the others… he didn’t even want to think about it.

He checked the clock. It was almost showtime. He had no idea how he’d get everyone to act calm and professional when they were out there. In fact, he didn’t believe it was even possible. The whole situation filled him with a sense of deja-vu. And if this played out anything like the time he was thinking about then things would not go well out there…

The crowd in the joust dome cheered as their king rose from his throne. He faced his subjects with a smile. A Squirebot handed him a microphone and he tapped on it vigorously.

“Hello? Hello, is this thing on?” King Halbert said nervously.

The microphone screeched from the incessant tapping. The audience covered their ears at the noise. The king stopped tapping it as soon as he saw that.

“Haha, sorry everyone!” He laughed and regained his composure (or at least the closest thing to composure he could have), “Good people of Knighton, we’ve gathered here today to celebrate one year of monster-free peace across the land. But I guess you already knew that, you’re here after all… Anyway, moving on! This past year has been a prosperous time. A time of joy and well… peace! And I’d like to take a moment to celebrate the people responsible for this peace. The ones who felled the monsters and their master— the Nexo Knights!”

The crowd cheered once again as the Knights walked out on stage. They all stood side by side as they smiled and waved to their adoring public, the public they served to protect. Everyone except Jestro, who stood far away from the rest of the Knights. He didn’t think he should be considered a knight, even though Clay and the others said they would be happy to have him. Right now he was being trained in magic by Merlock and lived with the rest of them, but he still didn’t feel like he could ever be a part of the team. Like he’d never be on the same level as them. Especially not after everything he did… He almost fell back into his melancholy but quickly remembered where he was. He had to snap himself out of it. He had to smile right now, he had to do it for them and for the public.

He looked to the Knights, not really knowing what he should do right now only to watch this exchange play out…

Lance winked and smiled, “Thank you, thank you! You can all get autographs later.”

“As if anyone would want an autograph from you…” Macy chided.

“How would you know? You aren’t popular like me.”

“She’s actually more popular. She’s the princess,” Axl said.

“Well that’s just your opinion!”

“No, bro. That’s just facts,” Aaron said.

“They are not!” Lance weakly retorted.

“Face it, you got burned!”

Jestro was too nervous and far away to add words to the conversation, but he did silently giggle at Lance getting put in his place.

Clay breathed an internal sigh of relief. Everything was going well so far. The usual suspects weren’t making that much trouble yet. At least they were keeping their argument quiet. This was a good sign. Maybe he could let his guard down for a bit and just have fun today… or not. His thoughts were interrupted by the public’s cheers turning into screams.

The gates of the Joust Dome burst open and were hurled aside by a giant ape-like Rahi. It cried out before beginning to wreak havoc on everything around it. Like all the others before it, the crystal on its head glowed and unnatural power coursed through its body.

The sight of the monster stunned Clay into silence. He succeeded at concealing his horror, but on the inside he was panicking. He couldn’t believe this was happening but he had to get himself together. The people were depending on the Knights now.

Aaron laughed, “Wow, this is wild! Merlock really took his whole magic monster thing from last year to the next level, huh?”

“Aaron, I really don’t want to believe it, but I don’t think it’s fake…” Macy said.

“Yeah, look at the way it’s tearing everything to pieces. That’s real.” Lance added.

“Man, if it is real then that’s really not cool and we totally need to stop it,” Aaron said with a sudden seriousness.

Axl nodded, silently agreeing to head into battle. Jestro on the other hand was anything but ready. He gripped his staff as he pulled it close to him and backed even further away from the Knights. He couldn’t bare the thought of actually fighting that thing. Luckily for him the other Knights rushed into battle, seemingly without noticing he was even there.

The Knights began the fight by attacking the Rahi head-on. The team repeatedly struck the creature, but their attacks just bounced off it. The Rahi swung back at them and the Knights narrowly dodged its attack. They collectively kept their distance to regroup.

“We need a plan. We can’t just attack at random,” Clay said.

“Sure. You got any ideas, Super Knight?” Lance snarked.

Clay didn’t verbally respond, but he was thinking about it. During the short period of silence, the Rahi ran towards them and tried to clobber them again. Just like last time, they barely avoided it.

“We need to do something now!” Macy yelled.

“Okay,” Aaron jumped on his hover-shield, “I’ll try to distract it for you. Stay out of its way for now while I get you guys an opening.”

The other Knights had no idea if this tactic would work, but they had no time and no choice but to give it a try. Aaron flew off at top speed and began circling the Rahi. It was not very pleased about this flying annoyance and began swatting at him like he was a fly. Aaron weaved through its punches while shooting at it. His arrows, like all the weapons used before them, seemed to do absolutely nothing. The Rahi had no reaction except anger. It picked up a nearby Squirebot and threw it at Aaron, hitting him square in the face. The force of the Squirebot sent him flying off his Hover-Shield and into the wall of the Joust Dome. The four Knights left were not surprised by the outcome of Aaron’s plan, but at least it bought them some time.

“Okay, I think I know what to do. We should—” Clay was cut off by the sight of Axl charging at the Rahi all by himself.

“What are you doing?!” Macy shouted.

Axl couldn’t hear her objections. He only had one goal in his mind: to take down the monster that hurt his friend. He ran at the Rahi and when he was within range, he swung his axe at it. His axe hit it in the chest, the force of the strike leaving some damage. The Rahi was enraged by the successful attack and quickly struck back, launching Axl into the same wall it launched Aaron into. After getting rid of Axl, the Rahi turned towards the remaining Knights. It was primed to attack.

Clay glanced at his teammates before turning his attention back to the Rahi, “We need to work together this time.”

“Agreed,” Macy nodded.

“Yeah, that much is obvious. Can we get on with it because there’s a giant monster that could tear us to pieces any second now,” Lance said.

“Okay, triangle formation, everyone!” Clay ordered.

The trio split from each other and quickly surrounded the Rahi. The creature was a bit confused by their sudden cooperative move but that didn’t detour it from continuing to attack them. The Knights fought valiantly against it, but again we’re getting nowhere. For every strike they made that barely left a mark (which was all of them) they had to dodge three strikes made back at them. The longer the battle lasted the more mistakes the Knights made, allowing the Rahi the chance to take them out. One by one they were worn down and eventually tossed away just like Aaron and Axl before them. Clay was the last one left standing, but he knew he wouldn’t be standing for long with the way it was going. He finally faltered by missing a crucial chance to deflect its incoming attack. Its arm swung at him and threw him into the Joust Dome wall. The same wall everyone else had gotten thrown into. When Clay recovered from the physical shock he looked around to see his teammates all laying on the ground beside him.

“Hey, Clayman,” Aaron said.

“Glad you could drop in,” Lance snickered.

“Why are you making jokes right now? We all just got pummeled,” Macy snapped.

“Yeah. No more small talk. We need to figure out how to beat this thing,” Clay said.

“We should download a Nexo Power,” Axl suggested.

The Knights made unanimous statements of agreement.

Clay lifted himself off the ground, “Alright, it’s settled. Let’s do this.”

The rest of the Knights got up, aimed their shields at the sky and…

“Nexo Knight!” Clay shouted as he thrust his shield into the air.

Nexo Power: Blacklash Lightning. Its power flowed through their shields and into their armor. The power reached their weapons and made them surge with electricity. When it was finished the Knights, too, felt it’s power within them, as if it had downloaded straight into their veins.

“It’s time to turn the tables. Nexo Knights…” Clay began.

The Knights all finished his command at once, “Charge!”

The team ran towards the Rahi, weapons at the ready. Clay was at the front of the Knights and was the first one to hit the Rahi. His sword sliced into it, sending a current of electricity through the creature. Clay smiled, he knew that one must’ve left a mark. He glanced at the area he just struck and saw…nothing. The Rahi didn’t even flinch. Even as the other Knights assaulted the creature it had almost no reaction to their weapons, the strength of the Nexo Power, or the electricity they created jolting through its body. Clay felt cold. The Knights attacked and attacked but made no progress. They all realized it was hopeless. If a Nexo Power couldn’t deal any damage to this thing, then what could they do? They quickly backed away from the Rahi and tried to regroup. The Rahi continued to chase after them, but they tried to keep their distance.

“Okay, Nexo Power didn’t work. What do we do?” Macy asked.

“I don’t know…” Clay responded.

They jumped out of the way of another attack.

“Well, we’ve gotta think of something or we’re toast!” Aaron said.

The Knights we’re trying to think but were all too panicked to know what to do. It felt like their thoughts were being drowned out by a loud roaring sound combined with ear-piercing beeping. The sound continued to get louder and louder until they all realized the noise they were hearing wasn’t just in their heads. It was real. The moment they realized that a large object shot down from the sky and crashed through the ceiling of the Joust Dome and straight into the Rahi. The Rahi was completely knocked out, and the object was sitting beside it. It looked like it was some kind of futuristic spaceship. The Knights stared in silence, shocked, as the spaceship opened and three figures walked out of it, coughing from the smoke inside the ship.

“I can’t believe we actually lived through that..!” Surge whimpered.

“See? I told you we’d get here in one piece,” Rocka smiled.

“Yeah, we may be in one piece but the Herocraft is in pieces! Also you almost killed us,” Bulk said.

“Well, we’re not dead. And we made it to the planet,” Rocka activated his visor, “Now where’s our target…”

The Knights looked at each other, all sharing the same confusion. They tentatively approached the Heroes.

“Are you all okay?” Clay asked.

“No…” Surge sighed.

“Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine. What about you guys?” Bulk said.

“We just got the crap kicked out of us by that monster but other than that, we’re good,” Aaron replied.

Surge quickly perked up, “Monster? Where?”

“The one you guys just crashed into,” Macy said as she pointed to the Rahi.

“Our target!” Rocka shouted.

The Heroes collectively whipped out their weapons. They carefully approached the Rahi, it looked like it was out cold, but they weren’t taking any chances. When they were close enough, they aimed, fired, and…boom. The crystal shattered and its power left the Rahi. Even after that happened the creature was still out.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Lance scoffed.

“You sound pretty ungrateful. We just saved your lives!” Rocka said.

“I apologize for him. Thank you for helping us. Who knows what would’ve happened if you weren’t here,” Clay said.

“By the way, why are you here?” Aaron asked.

“We’re Heroes! We came here to protect your planet from the mind-controlled monsters wreaking havoc around the universe!” Surge smiled.

“So, you’re like us Knights but for the entire galaxy,” Axl said.

“That’s right!” Rocka replied.

The Heroes explained the situation to the Knights. Like the teams before them, the Knights sense of justice made them volunteer to help the Heroes on their mission, to which they promptly agreed.

“Now that that’s decided, we should get going,” Bulk said.

“How? Our Herocraft is totally busted,” Surge asked.

Bulk gave Rocka a cold stare, “Rocka…”

“Fine, I’ll do it…” Rocka sighed.

He turned in his communicator and began talking into it.

“Hey, Stormer! It’s going good on our end. So, uh… We kinda need another Herocraft,” he awkwardly said.

This clearly did not go over well as everyone could hear Stormer’s muffled yelling coming through the communicator. The Knights watched with concern while the other Heroes acted like this was a normal Tuesday. Probably because it was a normal Tuesday for them.

Aaron poked Bulk on the shoulder and motioned to Rocka, “Is he gonna be like…okay?”

“Eh, he’ll be fine,” Bulk said.

The group awkwardly watched Rocka convince Stormer over the communicator to send them a new Herocraft. Rocka somehow looked physically exhausted after going through that conversation. The other two Heroes displayed no sympathy for him, and the Knights had no idea what to say to any of them.

“Serves you right for torturing us for that entire ride,” Surge said.

“And for breaking Hero Factory equipment,” Bulked added.

“Yeah, that too.”

“Hey, there’s a guy walking towards us,” Rocka pointed behind the group.

“That was a terrible attempt at changing the subject,” Bulk said.

“No, really, there’s a shifty looking guy over there,” Rocka insisted.

The group turned around and saw Jestro looking like a deer in headlights.

“Oh, hey Jestro,” Macy said.

“Who?” Surge asked.

“Jestro. He’s our friend,” Clay said.

Jestro awkwardly waved at them.

“So, there’s actually six of you! You’ll be coming with us too, then?” Bulk asked.

“Y-Yes,” Jestro answered.

Even though he said yes, he wasn’t really sure what he was signing up for. He hadn’t heard the entirety of their conversation, but he knew it would be too awkward for him to ask now. And within the brief moment he was in his own head, the conversation had already moved to another topic. He had no choice but to just go with the flow. Just rolling with it turned out well for him until the new Herocraft showed up and he was very confused again. And again he chose not to say anything. He boarded the ship with the others and watched as it took off to take them to…somewhere. He didn’t know it, but that somewhere was Hero Factory HQ.

CHAPTER 5

Back at HQ, our protagonists had all met in the briefing room and the feeling in the air was noticeably tense. It was safe to say that none of the Heroes were expecting to leave a team of nine and to reunite as a team of twenty-seven. It was also safe to say that Stormer was not too pleased about their unexpected visitors.

“So, what exactly gave you the impression you had the authority to bring back these ‘allies?’” he asked.

“Don’t get mad at us when you did the exact same thing!” Furno yelled while pointing at the Toa standing near Stormer.

“Hey, don’t point at us like we did something wrong!” Pohatu said.

“Well, I have the authority to decide who we ally with. You do not,” Stormer stated.

“Okay, Rocka might not have the power to do that, but I’m a real Hero and I should!” Furno countered.

“Did you just imply I’m not a real Hero?!” Rocka yelled.

Stringer stepped between Furno and Rocka to prevent the situation from escalating, “Guys, simmer down. We should by fightin’ the enemy, not each other.”

“Yeah. I know it might be hard to trust someone you just met, but we’re here to help,” Lloyd said.

Stormer shot a cold glare at him. Though he was only looking at Lloyd, everyone else in the room could feel his anger.

“Yeesh. Tough crowd,” Kai remarked.

“I know, right? How could they not see how selfless and sincere we are?” Lance agreed.

“That sounds like a lie,” Tahu said.

“Hey! I’d never lie! Lying is against the Knight’s Code! And I am a model Knight!” Lance retorted.

“You don’t even believe in the Knight’s Code!” Clay countered.

“Shhh! They don’t know that,” Lance whispered.

“Knight’s Code?” Furno said skeptically.

“I wonder if it’s like our Toa Code,” Lewa said.

“Quiet, everyone,” Stormer interrupted, “If you want to help us, then you should listen to the briefing.”

Everyone shut up immediately. Stormer didn’t express it verbally, but that short conversation between the teams warmed his heart a bit. It reminded him of how Alpha Team talked to each other, especially back when Thresher and Von-Ness were there…

“Stormer? When’s that briefing happening?” Bulk asked.

Stormer snapped out of his memories, “Now.”

He motioned to Zib, who seemed slightly taken off guard.

“Oh. I thought you people would just keep talking… Anyway,” Zib pulled up a map of the galaxy on the monitor, “Right now all of the energy signals are originating from the same location and spreading out from there and to other planets.”

“It’s coming from the planet our team visited,” Breez said.

“I suppose it makes sense,” Tahu began, “If the Villain is using the Rahi for these attacks, then they must be based on Spherus Magna.”

“So, wait, those monsters are from your planet?” Cole asked.

“Yes. They are not usually aggressive like this though,” Gali said.

“Why didn’t you tell us that while we were there…” Evo sighed.

“There have also been more attacks since you left. As you can see, there’s tens of planets that are in danger right now. I think our plan now is to send most of our Heroes to combat them on those planets, and to send a specialized team to attack the leader of the operation,” Zib explained.

“Ugh, we have to split up again?!” Rocka complained.

“Yes. It’s the only viable option right now,” Zib said.

“I see. Then who will be taking the leader?” Stormer asked.

“I think you can sort it out amongst yourselves. But be quick about it! We don’t have time to lose,” Zib ordered.

The group began to discuss who would be fighting the Villain, and the answer came about surprisingly quickly…

And the answer was unsurprisingly obvious. Stormer, Furno, Tahu, Lloyd, Kai, and Clay had boarded a Herocraft and were on their way to Spherus Magna. The energy on that ship was a bit tense. They didn’t know what they were in for, and they didn’t know each other very well either.

Lloyd decided to attempt to start a conversation, “So, do we have a plan here? What do you Heroes usually do in these situations?”

“Find the Villain, beat them up, save the day,” Furno concisely answered.

“Well, yeah, that much is obvious,” Kai said with contempt.

“Guys, please don’t tell me you’re still mad at each other…” Lloyd said.

“Did something happen between those two?” Clay asked.

“They’re probably just having an ego war,” Stormer correctly assumed.

“Hey!” Furno and Kai snapped.

“Looks like I’m right,” Stormer said.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and any conversation was just as awkward. Eventually, they arrived at their destination. They were back at Spherus Magna, at the entrance to a thick forest. The group stepped out of the Herocraft. Stormer and Furno activated their visors, the tech showing them the location of their target.

“They must be located deep within this forest. We’ll have to go in on foot,” Stormer said.

“What? Why can’t we just fly that ship through the place and be done with it?” Kai asked.

“And destroy the entire forest? Breez would never let us here the end of it,” Furno said.

“Breez wouldn’t? What about us? This is our home,” Tahu said.

“That too,” Furno added.

The group began trekking through the forest. For some reason, Stormer was leading them, even though Tahu was the only one who actually lived on this planet. The place was full of tall trees, lush greenery, and vines. Every so often they’d have to cut some plants out of their way, but so far, they had seen no Rahi on this planet that was supposed to be their home.

“Hey, Tahu, if the Rahi are from here, then why haven’t we seen any?” Kai asked.

“I do not know. And it worries me slightly, honestly,” Tahu replied.

“If the Rahi aren’t here, then they might have all been taken by that Villain,” Clay theorized.

“I doubt they could have possibly taken all of them, but they must have at least been threatening enough to scare them off,” Tahu said.

They continued their journey, only seeing more of the same the deeper in they went. More trees, more plants, more vines. Everything looked so similar that most of them never noticed that it was getting darker the further in they went. The treetops were letting in less and less light, and the vines grew thicker and more chaotic in their growth. Tahu felt like something was wrong here but couldn’t explain why. He didn’t live here like Lewa so for all he knew the depths of the forest had always looked like this. But somehow the increasing darkness and foliage made him feel uneasy. He didn’t show it though.

Suddenly, Stormer reached his arm out to the side, signaling for everyone to stop.

“Why are we stopping?” Kai asked impatiently.

“There’s a clearing up ahead. And I think our Villain might be in there,” Stormer said.

The others peered around him and saw a fairly large clearing surrounded by bushes, trees and vines. A figure was standing there with two worm-like Rahi beside him. Stormer motioned towards a group of thick bushes, and following his lead, the group hid within them. They watched the Villain as he pinned one to the ground and zapped it with magic. The crystal grew out of its head and its new power corrupted it body. It grew much larger than it was before and its mouth grew rows of razor sharp teeth. He did the same to the other Rahi. They saw the Rahi now obeyed him; they had become his slaves.

“The Witch Doctor… I should’ve known it was him,” Stormer muttered.

“You know him?” Clay asked.

“Yeah. We fought him before. And we beat him and arrested him, for the record,” Furno said.

“Seems like you didn’t do a very good job keeping him locked up,” Kai snapped.

“Keep talking like that and—” Furno began to yell before being cut off by another voice.

“What do we have here?” the voice echoed.

Suddenly, a bolt of magic was hurled in their direction. The team jumped out of the way just in time but jumping out of the way also meant jumping out of their cover, exposing them to the Villain.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you pests?” the Witch Doctor sneered.

“You wouldn’t have if Furno kept his mouth shut!” Kai yelled.

“You were being annoying!” Furno countered.

The Witch Doctor shot another blast of magic at them, which they again barely dodged.

“You two can argue later, we have to focus on the fight at hand,” Clay said.

Kai and Furno silently accepted the truth and the group mentally steeled themselves for the fight.

“Now, my pets, destroy these meddling Heroes!” the Witch Doctor ordered.

The Rahi charged towards the team. Kai and Furno instinctively shot beams of fire at them. To their surprise, the Rahi appeared to chew through the fire like it was dirt to an earthworm. The Rahi slithered closer, leveling any rocks in their path to get to them. Stormer used his ice to temporarily stop the Rahis’ advance. He thought it would give them time to regroup, but Kai rushed the Rahi, drawing his sword and slashing at their crystals.

“What are you doing?!” Stormer yelled.

The Rahi were not trapped in that ice for long, and they broke out of it and were hellbent on making Kai their first prey. For a brief moment Kai gazed into the mouths of the beasts and saw tens of rows of teeth leading into what looked like an endless abyss. He was snapped out of it by Lloyd, who had jumped in to save him at the last second.

“You can’t run off on your own like that with no warning! We need to work—” he began but stopped short at the sight of Tahu and Furno running headfirst at the Rahi, “…together.”

The two fire-spitters took different approaches to fighting the beasts. Tahu, being intelligent, knew his fire would be useless against them, and chose to slice into the side of one with his sword. He successfully tore a thin slit through both of the Rahis’ smooth skins. That made the Rahi furious, and they focused all their attention on him. Furno watched as they darted towards Tahu and knew he had to do something. Not for Tahu’s sake, but because Tahu had managed to actually land a hit on those things, and he would not be bested. Furno launched a wave of fire and the Rahi and just as he expected, they whipped around and consumed the fire. He continued sending more fire at them, he figured they wouldn’t be able to take it for much longer. And he was right, but not exactly in the way he thought. The Rahi sucked in the fire as if it was their own breath and shot it back at him with twice the power. Furno stared at the fire coming at him in shock. He had no idea what to do, from his perspective, he was done for. The moment before the fire struck, he saw Tahu appear in front of him. Tahu shot up a wall of fire around them in an attempt to protect them from the incoming fire, and while it did give them enough protection to live, it didn’t do much else. The fire blasted them back and straight into Clay and from there into a tree behind them. Clay pulled himself out from under them and the other two laid on the forest floor, stunned.

“What was that?!” Clay snapped.

“I was trying to beat those things! Didn’t go the way I thought it would, but…” Furno said.

Tahu stood up, “You are lucky I was there. Your recklessness almost got three of us killed,”

Furno got up last and was about to say something back but one of the Rahi started to attack them again and the group had to leap out of the way. The other Rahi was attacking Lloyd, Stormer, and Kai, who were staying on the defensive. The Witch Doctor was just standing there, watching, laughing at the show that was being put on before him.

“Guys, whatever’s going on right now is completely unproductive! We need to work together to beat these things!” Lloyd said.

“Fighting these Rahi is pointless; we need to focus on the Witch Doctor. If we break his staff he’ll lose his power over these creatures, he’ll have nothing left,” Stormer said.

“That makes sense, but how will we get close enough to him to break it?” Tahu asked.

“I have an idea, but I need time. I need you to distract the enemy. That includes the Witch Doctor,” Clay said.

“Fine. We’ll try it your way,” Furno said.

“You could’ve said that a little nicer but it’s a step…” Lloyd sighed.

Clay split from Tahu and Furno and disappeared into the nearby foliage. While Tahu, Furno, Kai, and Lloyd fought the Rahi, while Stormer was focused on the Witch Doctor. Stormer approached him, weapons at the ready.

“Stormer… I knew you’d come fight me eventually. Just know this won’t end like last time,” the Witch Doctor taunted.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Stormer responded.

Stormer made the first move, he rushed the Witch Doctor and repeatedly sliced at him with his sword. The Witch Doctor swatted away his attacks like they were nothing. After a bit of this back and forth, the Witch Doctor found the opportunity to grab Stormer’s sword. He held it and the Hero in place, but Stormer did not seem phased.

“You’re still weak. Just as pathetic as when we first met,” the Witch Doctor smiled.

“I think you’re the one who was truly pathetic,” Stormer said.

The Hero activated the guns on his back, shooting ice straight into the Witch Doctor’s face. The Witch Doctor fell back and forcefully tore the ice off. He scowled.

“You’re just like the rest of the Heroes, a self-righteous robot with no regard for those less fortunate!” he said the word robot like it was a slur.

“And what about you? You nearly destroyed an entire planet to get what you wanted the first time, and now you’re forcing innocent creatures to do your dirty work by destroying more planets for you!” Stormer countered.

The Witch Doctor stood up, “Touché. But I hope you remember it’s you Heroes who made me this way. You were blessed with purpose and privilege, unlike me, a lowly, unimportant instructor.”

He raised his staff and shot multiple blasts of magic at Stormer. Stormer slashed through them and rushed in for a counterattack, but the Witch Doctor was ready for him. He took the hit from Stormer so he could grab him and throw him to the ground. He pinned Stormer there with one arm and raised his staff with the other, it glowed with the same magic he used on the Rahi. Stormer shot more blasts of ice at him, but he just smiled, he knew he had Stormer beat.

“I hope you savor your last moments being a Hero,” the Witch Doctor said.

Stormer continued to fight back, he kept trying to escape from the Witch Doctor’s grip, but the Villain was determined to keep him there. He realized this could actually be it, this would be where his journey as a Hero ends. He just hoped the others would be able to stop him once he was taken over…

Suddenly a a figure in a flash of light appeared behind the Witch Doctor and shattered his staff. As the magic from it faded away, the Witch Doctor whipped around to see Clay standing behind him.

“You— How—?!” he shouted.

“I don’t think you should be focused on me right now,” Clay said.

Just as the Witch Doctor registered what Clay had said to him, he was pinned to the ground and cuffed by Stormer. The Witch Doctor struggled to find something to say in response but when he finally opened his mouth, he was cut off by Stormer.

“Save it. Nothing you say will change the outcome,” he said.

The Witch Doctor lowered his head in response. He accepted his fate, but he certainly wasn’t happy about it. Seeing the fight was over, Clay lifted his sword in front of his chest.

“Hey, guys! You beat him?” Lloyd called out as he and the others ran over to Stormer and Clay.

“Yes. What about you? What happened to the Rahi?” Clay asked.

“They kinda just stopped attacking all of a sudden,” Kai said.

“We thought it had something to do with you, and it looks like we’re right,” Furno added.

“Well done, you two,” Tahu said.

“I can’t take much credit for this, it was him who saved me,” Stormer gestured towards Clay.

“Thank you, but you did most of the work,” Clay said.

“You two need to give yourselves more credit…” Lloyd said.

“Hey, uh, Clay? I just need to ask, why are you glowing now?” Kai asked.

“Oh. I downloaded a Nexo Power to win us that fight. Beam Jump to be exact,” Clay replied.

“I see. That power is how you got the jump on the Witch Doctor,” Stormer said.

“Wait, so you can download magic into your armor?!” Kai exclaimed.

“Pretty much,” Clay said.

“How did you even download that Nexus Power or whatever it’s called? There’s barely any internet out here,” Furno questioned.

“Nexo Power. And you’re right, the signal out here isn’t the best. That’s why I needed time,” Clay responded.

“I hate to add another question to this conversation but, why are you standing like that?” Tahu asked.

Clay was standing exactly how he was when their conversation started. His sword lifted beside his chest.

“A post-battle victory pose. A Knight must always celebrate their victory with an appropriate pose,” he said.

“You’re…really something,” Furno cringed.

The Witch Doctor’s voice cut through their pleasant conversation, “Power… They promised me power...”

The team instantly turned their attention to the Villain.

“What? What power?” Kai asked.

“And who is ‘they’?” Tahu added.

“Sorry. I should stop talking. After all, nothing I say will change the outcome,” the Witch Doctor smiled.

The team looked at him, puzzled as to what any of that was about. Stormer picked the Villain up off the ground and onto his feet.

“No, they won’t change your fate in jail, but they did make you get a lot more time in interrogation,” Stormer turned to the rest of the team, “Come on, let’s get back to the HQ.”

He pushed the Witch Doctor forward, silently telling him to walk or else. When they started moving, the rest of the team followed. Their journey back to the Herocraft was the end of their battle against this Villain. Taking him to Hero Factory would be the end of their adventure together, and everyone figured they’d all be headed home after things were settled there. Finally, home after so long…

The next day, back at Hero Factory HQ, everyone had been called into a meeting in the briefing room. They all figured the meeting was just a formality they had to do to let them leave, a “thank you for helping us protect the galaxy, see you later!” type meeting. But when Stormer entered the room he seemed very serious, much to the surprise of all twenty-six other people there.

“What’s up with him?” Lance asked, though he wasn’t actually concerned about Stormer’s feelings.

“I don’t know,” Gali said.

“Maybe he woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” Jay proposed.

“How? Do robots even sleep?” Macy asked.

“We’re not robots. And we do sleep, by the way,” Rocka said.

“You literally are—” Kai began.

“Thank you all for coming,” Stormer raised his voice enough to get everyone’s attention, “And for being willing to stay the night here. I know you all want to go back to your home planets, but there is something I must ask of you before you leave. Though our interrogation of the Witch Doctor has just started, it is clear to us there is more than meets the eye with this situation, and that the people he spoke of are most likely very real and could be very dangerous. If people like them exist and are able to give power to Villains like what they did with the Witch Doctor, then no planet is safe. It is for this reason I would like to propose an alliance.”

Stormer’s final sentence hung in the air, everyone contemplating what it could mean for them, for their worlds, and for their future…

SUMMARY

(Original upload date: 10/29/23)

CONTENT WARNINGS

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